newhome

Is there any evidence to suggest that the council ever enforces anything if you move in before completion? If the dwelling has PP isn’t that all they are interested in really? When I got into a bit of a stand off with the council over the Form Q I said that if it couldn’t be resolved (they wanted the SE to do something that he said wasn’t possible within the scheme rules) I would just have to stay living here without completion. They seemed not bothered by that and in fact my neighbours lived next door with no completion certificate for 10 years (and no temporary habitation certificate either). Their view of a habitable dwelling is not the same as building control sign off, it seems to be when walls are plastered and there is potable water, where council tax is concerned anyway.

How would you value the work done? So take a simple example buying a shower. Shower is £100 excluding VAT and is purchased with 5% VAT £105. Labour is costed at an hour to fit so let’s say £10 (do you have to charge labour to yourself?). Invoice to ‘customer’ / self £115. Or are you saying that the invoice would need to be £115 + 10% to escape BIK so £126.50? Shower bought with 20% VAT and DIY fit = £120

I have deep drawers for most of my base units. Easy to pull out and see what’s in them. For the ones that aren’t most have pull out racks. Crockery, pans, glasses, small appliances etc. are all stored in them. I do have wall cupboards but apart from coffee mugs I don’t keep anything of any weight in them. This was hubby’s doing as he decided that he didn’t want the potential of anything of any weight falling out and damaging the worktop, hob etc. So mugs and things like cereal are put on the lower shelf and anything higher up that I need a stool to reach are things I use in a blue moon.

Self builders seem to be able to set up accounts easily enough, or are you saying that those in the trade will get much better deals using their accounts than a self builder? Isn’t the flat rate scheme mostly for trades that provide services though? I think I read when I glanced at the flat rate scheme before that buying materials needed to only account for circa 2% of turnover. And isn’t using the flat rate scheme a choice? Presumably not one you would make if your main reason for registering for VAT was to reduce the VAT paid on materials.

@Digmixfill it doesn’t look as though you are following this thread (unless you are the incognito follower). At the bottom of the page hit the follow link and this screen will appear. You can select to follow a thread here. To manage your settings at account level once you are in the follow screen select ‘change how the notification is sent’. You can then manage the settings for your account. There are general settings at the bottom that you can set too.

Yes you could do that however all VAT registered trades working in the construction industry have to comply with VAT notice 708 and the bit in bold above is from that VAT notice. So it depends whether the joiner follows the VAT notice to the letter. They risk being investigated by HMRC if they don’t apply the correct VAT and in theory they could come after you later to pay the missing VAT.

It’s all discontinued before you’ve ever used it? ?

You boys are rocking the innuendo tonight! Meanwhile @Onoff‘s off to check fleabay and gumtree for a bargain ?

Not a bad guess tho @Nickfromwales. Surprised you know so much about hair and nails! ???

Christ that’s nearly 5 times hair and nails then! ?

The one that's about 4 times the price ...

When are you starting the actual tiling?

This person wants to do much of the work himself but have a way of getting supplies on a 5% basis that he can't do via the DIY option. So use a VAT registered company / sole trader arrangement to front him doing the work (and buying supplies @ 5%). I think his thinking is that his services could be charged by the company at zero or next to nothing and the 'bill' to himself as house owner would mostly consist of the supply items but noted as a supply and fit arrangement and thus 5% VAT.

Yes I mentioned such things that could be areas of concern for HMRC at which point he told me that I was accusing him of tax avoidance when at the very start I said that he needed to take professional advice so the conversation ended. In any event it was a hypothetical question as he hadn't even stated his renovation work so no one was avoiding anything at that point. It does seem to be an area where it isn't very clear cut, and surely you can't set up a company just to avoid paying VAT at standard rate and for the company to deliberately avoid making any profit? Or maybe you can? One for an experienced accountant to advise on I imagine.

On another group someone asked about the VAT regulations for a property that had been empty for more than 2 years (but less than 10). I was able to say that they could get eligible work done by a VAT registered builder on a supply and fit basis @ 5% VAT. They wanted to know about work they did themselves so I said that there is no concession for buying building materials themselves and doing DIY work so the supply would be standard rated in that scenario. They then asked it they could set themselves up as a VAT registered trader / sole trader and therefore benefit from getting supplies @ 5% VAT. I told them to seek professional advice as I thought there might be some gotchas within the tax system that they could inadvertently get caught up in but what is the answer here? Is that something people are able to do or are there some implications?

You probably know the answer to that question ...

There seem to be a few free weekday tickets if you Google.

I use a fan pretty effectively when it’s too hot in the house. Yes they are only effective at cooling the person next to the fan as opposed to cooling down the entire room but given that it’s personal comfort that is most important I would have thought they work as a tool to mitigate rather than address the issue. I have one downstairs next to where I sit and another in the bedroom. The quieter one is used in the bedroom. I’m the world’s worst sleeper but can sleep with it running. I might try your ‘blowing hot air out of the window’ idea @jack but not today. Today it is cold and I’m thinking of switching the heating on. Summer is over ?.

Yes I can confirm Peter’s obsession with dodgy battery packs! ?

They don’t check much IME but they do get bees in their bonnets about some pretty inconsequential (IMO) things. I’m amazed he’s not bothered about your threshold though. It was a massive deal here, and how does he know you are living in it really? Just because you said so?

I could have done that I guess as in the end I sent photos to prove they had been put in (only thing needed to get the completion certificate) but it’s done now anyway. The joiner did suggest the stick on approach as it happens ? but I didn’t want to get into a row about it.

I had to get them added to the extension as a retrofit because there is no MVHR vent in there even though it’s linked to 2 rooms with MVHR either side. I told BC I would never use them but he said tough they were needed. I have 3 windows and a set of French doors in there but only had to get them fitted in 2 of the windows. They’ve been closed ever since.

Do you pay customs duty on lighting from AliExpress? If so how is it calculated?

Haven’t building control defined where the trickle vents should go?

Yes! Just don’t stick your fingers in a socket at the same time ?